After a period of relative stability, the world of SEO is back to buzzing with activity following a year of significant updates and changes in expectations from users and search engines alike. It’s a stretch to say that SEO has been “turned upside down” or anything quite so drastic, but it’s true that there have been significant changes in SEO that can have a significant impact on the day-to-day work of all kinds of digital marketers.
Trends in Action: The Recent Revolution in SEO That’s Making New Job Opportunities for Digital Marketers
Something as important as SEO can’t be ignored by other digital experts, even if your focus lies in somewhere like social media or analytics. Even minor shifts in SEO can have a big impact on what you need to be doing to excel at your discipline. Yet if you’re like most digital marketing professionals, it’s hard to find time in your busy days to extensively research and stay up to date on it. Luckily, it’s possible to keep an eye on the realm of search engines without committing a huge proportion of your time and energy. Simply keeping an eye on the right resources can be hugely effective in understanding the essentials.
You probably don’t need to be a master of SEO, but it pays for any digital marketer to be up to speed with the most important trends, news, and Google updates. Here are some resources and tools any digital professional can use to stay ahead of the game, grow their career and make themselves more attractive to SEO staffing firms and digital marketing recruiters.
Blog and Thought Leadership Resources
The Google Webmaster Blog
When it comes to keeping track of SEO, there’s no better place to start than the source. Google does not always give complete explanations of its search algorithm, but it frequently gives direct and indirect advice to site owners and businesses on what it’s looking for and what factors it considers when ranking pages.
Moz
Moz offers a number of paid tools, but they freely hand out some of the best insights, news, guides and reports in the industry. They offer high quality content focused around SEO and SEM. If you’re at all involved with digital marketing, then you should probably follow at least one SEO blog like this to stay abreast of big changes and best practices.
Quick Sprout
Written and edited primarily by digital marketing guru Neil Patel, Quick Sprout is an industry standard for digital strategy and execution. As a primarily 1-man show, it’s not the most frequently updated blog. But what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality posts on SEO and much more.
SearchEngineNews.com
This paid service provides a monthly digest of reports on the most important SEO/SEM trends, strategy and news accumulated from tracked blogs and test results. It’s one of the most reliable resources that has been around for years with a proven track of success.
Other Trustworthy SEO Blogs
There are plenty of SEO and SEM-oriented publications out there, but some stand above the rest. Here are a few of our favorites that regularly publish high-quality, actionable content by established and reputable SEO consultants and professionals. They’re all worth keeping an eye on!
Other Tools for Developing Basic SEO Staffing Strategy
Ahrefs
This is a handy tool to keep track of links to your company’s website (and your competitors’ web properties) and the buzz about your brand online. A free trial is available, though a paid subscription is required for further use.
SpyFu
This tool gives you a glimpse into what your competitors are doing for SEM and SEO so you can get insight into their strategy and adapt accordingly.
Marketing Automation Platforms
A well-integrated marketing automation service can offer tremendous insights into how SEO interacts with other aspects of your digital marketing. We like Hubspot, but other popular providers like Marketo and Pardot offer similar functionalities.
BrightEdge
BrightEdge is an outstanding SEO and content evaluation tool for digital marketers who want to get a deeper look into how search is affecting their business. However, it doesn’t come cheap. Make sure the investment is worthwhile before making any commitments.